E-Paper
Humour by Rehana Munir: About time
From imposing routine to inspiring fantasy, time is a shape-shifter. Whether it comes up via shared memories in conversations with friends or as social media throwbacks
It happens every time I’m dragging my feet over a task. A perverse switch in my head gets flicked and I’m transported to a realm where time escapes the cage of the calendar and assumes an altogether more imposing identity. 6pm on a Monday or a Tuesday is transformed into 4.54 billion years ago. Poof. All stress disappears when you’re considering what really happened in the seconds after the Big Bang. What’s a pending phone call or leaking wall in comparison?
The fear of being “pluto’d”
It’s heartbreaking what happens to high profile celestial as well as earthly objects these days. Poor Stonehenge has been pluto’d – which is to say it has been stripped of its hallowed status by UNESCO. As if to give the timekeeping fraternity something to cheer about, a 2,300-year-old solar observatory in Peru was declared a World Heritage Site in June this year. The Chankillo observatory, built before the rise of the Inca empire, boasts hilltop ruins which enabled astronomical observations of great accuracy in the ancient world. A series of towers helped observers mark not just the passage of day, but also the summer and winter solstice and other astronomical phenomena. A staggering feat of technology, long before fitness watches began to subject our poor bodies to constant surveillance.
The sheer simplicity and geometric beauty of a sundial makes it an architectural marvel. And to tell the time using shadows is one of the many gifts science offers poetry. And so, I was a bit disappointed to learn that the world’s oldest known sundial (c. 1500 BC) – found in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings – was used to measure work hours for slave labour. There’s that inescapable cage of the calendar again.
Analog or digital?
A friend recently gifted me a clock from that modern-day architectural marvel – IKEA – ending my lifelong avoidance of a ticking timepiece in my home, born out of an irrational fear of alarm clocks. This specimen is white and bright, lending some Scandinavian chic to a wall that my landlord has decided to cover in dreary grey tiles. Two slender arms point to perforated numbers, and unlike me when there’s biryani on offer, it has no use for seconds. The entire effect is one of lightness, giving the impression that time skips along unnoticeably. In contrast, the magnificent church around the corner sounds a melodious bell at noon and dusk every day, making me think of time as an entity to be honoured and deferred to. Swedish minimalism vs semi-gothic splendour. Just one of the many contradictions of our times.
Now that smartphones have filled up all the space we never had in our lives, I often wonder why wristwatches are needed at all. A single-function device is an anomaly in this age of head-spinning multitasking. Keychains are also torches. A diary conceals a powerbank. News channels serve as emetics. For all my tech aversion, I’m thankful for the characterless digital clock on the phone which, unlike wall clocks and church bells, inspires no strong emotions in me.
The time traveller’s wishlist
Michael J Fox was the poster boy for time travel in my growing-up years, thanks to his Back to the Future sci-fi adventures (the original film came out in 1985). Many years later, Audrey Niffenegger came along with her novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife (2003), with a quite disturbing plot which you can google and be bewildered by. It time travelled into cinema halls in 2009 and is due for a TV release on HBO in the near future. Brrrr.
Richard Curtis’ take on the subject was far lighter in the British romcom, About Time (2013). When he turns 21, the protagonist’s father tells him about the secret gift that the male members of the family possess to travel back in time and change key moments from the past. If I were him, I’d undo at least three absurd haircuts, stop myself from having that last drink on at least a few dozen occasions and befriend Freddie Mercury. On a less selfish note, I’d prevent the rise of dictators, hit backspace on global warming and ask da Vinci what that smile he painted was all about. I’m ready for my time machine, as long as it’s not designed by Jeff Bezos.
Follow @rehana_munir on Twitter and Instagram
From HT Brunch, August 15, 2021
Follow us on twitter.com/HTBrunch
Connect with us on facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunch
